Woman employee falls to death as rope snaps
A fire drill at a garment factory went horribly wrong on Friday when a rope snapped sending a woman employee plummeting to her death from a height of nearly 15 metres.
According to eyewitnesses, C.R. Nalina (24), a Senior Welfare Officer at Bombay Rayon Fashions Ltd. in Yeshwanthpur, fell head first onto the concrete floor below. Co-workers rushed her to a hospital in Krishnanagar but it refused to treat her. She was then moved to another hospital in Basaveshwarnagar where efforts to revive her failed.
Co-workers said the event began at 10.30 a.m. with a few presentations and speeches. At 11 a.m. the entire premises was evacuated and the employees gathered outside to watch the drill.
Around 11.30 a.m., personnel from the Fire and Emergency Services proceeded to demonstrate one of their more eye-catching manoeuvres. The move involved lowering a person from a height using a rope harness.
First a man was lowered and landed safely. When the fire personnel called for another volunteer, most people backed out but Ms. Nalina stepped up to the challenge.
“She probably felt that as a person responsible for employee welfare, she should set an example,” said one employee. She was put on a harness and lowered from the third floor window. “The rope snapped when she was nearing the second floor,” said Regional Fire Officer J.H. Ravishankar, who was on the spot.
Fire personnel initially told The Hindu that the rope used in the manoeuvre was a brand new one and made of nylon. But when the blood-soaked rope was brought to the hospital where the post-mortem was conducted, it became amply clear that it was not made of nylon. It also looked fairly old and worn out. A safety net was also not used during the drill.
A fireman who has spent over 20 years in the department said that a live model should never have been used for the demonstration.
A.R. Infant, Director-General of Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services Department, said: “It is too premature to come to any conclusion. Let's wait for the investigation results.”
Keywords: Bangalore fire drill, woman death
The article said that the hospital to which the woman was first taken would not treat her and they had to take her to another. What is that all about?
Heart wrenching. The loss for her loved ones would be unmeasurable.
However, isn't this the result of the typical attitude of each one of us
in this society? No use pinpointing the fire service. Anyone who points
out to quality short comings is looked down upon as "he has come from
heaven to advise". This attitude continues until the tragedy is
personal. Unless each one of us changes our outlook, the society won't.
Typical careless attitude --using worn out rope -- towards any task by the majority of people, is the root cause, as per this report. People have to be drilled into doing their jobs properly. I am sad for the officer and her loved ones. God bless the family members of the officer to overcome the grief.
Supreme Court should take suo motu cognizance & A.R. Infant, Director-
General of Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services should be
arrested ..for Failure in his Responsibility in ensuring Drill happened
after taking all safety measure into account...
these type of drills took place in other countries for several years.. the organizers should use the standard products to give lessons.. if any fire happens in the future in that company., no one will use this because their fellow colleague has died because of that...
This is simply horrific! The fire personnel should have had enough commonsense to spread safety nets before asking for volunteers for such a dangerous act. Any crime TV series will teach you that! A tragic end to a young girl's life. Hope justice will be served.
I feel ashamed at the Fire Department being involved in such careless operations. Valuable life has been lost. The Fire Dept. cannot conduct a demo properly how will the save life in actual situation. It only speaks of poor quality of equipement and incompetence of the fire officers. God save this country from the officials who are responsible for this whole affair.
Brutal. Something which should have never taken place,never. A demonstrtion event turning into murder that too under the direction and guidance of people who are considered to be the masters and authority in the field of safety. It is a national shame. If this is the level at which demonstrators go in to fine details, can anyone blame if it becomes a regular affair in reality when things are supposed to be made literally on a hurry bury mood. The fire department should be taken for a real drill elsewhere.
Sad news. I feel sorry for the girl. May her soul rest in peace. As
far as the drill is concerned, proper investigation should be done by the
police because these kind of accidents are not expected from an
experienced fire department. Further more all the companies
should take this case as an eye-opener,and ensure that these kind of
incidents never happen in future again!
This is such an unfortunate event. Fire Deparment should have ensured the safety of all those involved before setting off for the drill.Really very sad!!
The fire department has failed totally and can they give life back? and
a minister comes and announces a meagre compensation... is that it?
Shame on fire department. First of all the fire department need proper training.
This is in response to Krishna kumar's comments dated Feb. 24, 2012. Use of stairs is one option. The stairs must be built with fire rated steps and wall enclosures and doors. I have not seen these in any of the buildings in cities I visited in the South. In using stairs you need to have well lit EXIT signs leading to stairs and also the walking distance to the nearest stair is about 150 feet. Fire Department is required to certify the building prior to occupation.
The fire department needs more training in safety procedures and rescuing people in case of emergency. They should consider using one full body harness with a seperate rope and another rope for lowering the person. This procedure is followed in US in highrise buildings for cleaning windows. It is important to check the safety equipment on a daily basis for defects. New rope needs to be tested also.
alas! had there been a clear protocol for a mock drill and there would have been some one to ensure all safety measures, such a deadly blunder would not have occurred. Those responsible should be punished and fire department should learn to have set rule to avoid accidents during safety drills.
This goes to show how underdeveloped we are when compared to western countries in respect of Emergency Departments. We couldnt manage a proper drill which is conducted in controlled manner, just imagine how it would have been in real time situation in which we dont have any control of the situation. Sad!!
This is such a sad news.The mock drill organizer and the fire department head should be arrested immediately. This is a clear case of murder/manslaughter due to carelessness. If these people go scott free, then God save india. Indian government employee's attitude will never change.
Regret for the such incident-before any demo check for the quality of the material used for the demo. Better to have dummy model to be used with resonable weight.For such demo better to have fall arrester(safety net) at the bottom level of the ground tied firmly above 6ft height as a precautionary measure.
what a mockery of a mock drill. a young life snuffed out just like that. what a waste of a human life. hope the tragedy isn't worsened by getting embroiled in yet another long time consuming enquiry. hope someone there has the sensitivity to hasten the process to ease the pain of the girl's family.
These negligent people are getting away with manslaughter.
Anand, perhaps you wouldn't say that if your family member died. A safety drill was supposed to be conducted in a planned manner. The woman's family needs to be taken care of and whoever insufficiently planned this drill without a safety net needs to be reprimanded.
What a shame?! Like N number of incidents this will pass in to history until something bad (forbid) happens in future. This seems like a systematic failure in ensuring safety from where it is expected! Shows how years of bureaucracy, inefficiency, lack of passion for one's profession has culminated in to negligence and apathy that is unbecoming of any democratic system! Shame and I am sorry for the employee's family! How are they going to compensate the death? By firing the concerned officials in the fire department that overlooked the conditions of the rope and lack of backup measures? or just a ransom amount to keep the mouth shut of NGOs and the family?
It is very unfortunate, as accidents likes these are difficult to anticipate. But, yes the department has to be ultra conscious while performing such mock drills as it is mainly targeted to educate the humans about the rescue plan. Any mishap during such drives completely pulls out the plug/increases panic unnecessarily.
Hope the corresponding department head reorganizes the plan of action and execution very carefully, henceforth.
Alas, an young life was lost for the sake of safety!!! Its shocking indeed that no measures were in place, when such a high risk activity is being carried out by Fire & Safety Dept. The dept. should be investigated to know whether any approved Fire Drill Procedure was followed or not. Whether such a procedure is available in the first place shall be checked. Safety First, Last & Always shall be the concept for the Dept.
Mr. Anand comment on this is really eye opener. People could be so insensitive too. When any organisation is going such exercise it is their utmost duty to prevent any kind of injuries to the people involved. Costing a life can not be taken as a minor thing or just an indicator of short coming in fire department plans as suggested by you Mr. Anand.
It is so irresponsible on the part of organisers, Fire Deptt. that a mock drill took a valuable life. How can such things happen????
Anand, We cannot leave it at that. This is causing death by negligence.
Come on, Anand..That was a heartless opinion.."TIme to get back to the drwaing Board for Firemen; Let's leave it at that"...Would you say the same thing, if it was your family member? Any words spoken should be to improve a situation, otherwise, better not to comment..
Yes, atleast a safety net, below should have been basic requirement, for a drill like this, where people hang by rope to come down..that itself is dangerous..Who manufactured the Rope? What about metal ladders, that can be stuck out of the window, so people can safely get down..Stairs I hope are at the middle and corners of buildings, so people can access them..Unless the Rope was manufactured by ISO certified organisations, it is not safe to use them in drills or in real situations..This is where quality is all important, even in the smallest things..and this is lacking in India unfortunately. Seriously, the Fire Dept has to take responsibility for this incidence.
The people of India can only protest against this careless operation but
the Courts can change drastically the way these officers conduct their
affairs in future. For once the courts should close their statutory
books and punish the officers so heavily and also award a compensation
of atleast 10 crores to be paid by the Fire Service department so that
it will act as a warning bell to other government agencies.
Why are we being super critical on the fire department? There is nothing to indicate
the drill was not conducted in good faith. The fire drill proved its existence by
clearly indicating there is something lacking in the fire department's plans. Yes it
might indicate some severe shortcoming which they need to work on. In the US, this
model of shaming the Fire department is called "Gotcha Politics". These people of
Fire department, actually employed by us by our tax rupees, did the drill which
could potentially save the entire shift of factory workers. And yes the drill clearly demonstrated a weakness for which one family had to pay dearly. Time to get back
to the drawing board for the Firemen. Lets leave it at that.
Who said you need to come down in a rope during a fire evacuation, if stairs are not
safe then there is some thing wrong with the building design. Half baked fire drills
like this should be stopped. Fire evacuation should be done in a calm and safe
manner. It is not a rescue stunt as people have imagined in this case.
What a surprise it is....... when the drill was being conducted under the supervision of Fire & Safety Dept. no any safety belt was fastened by the woman for her safety in case of any accident. or any safety bed was not laid on the floor to protect her life in case of falling down when such a risky task was assigned her.
very sad....sad.....sad when it is happening while demonstration without providing any safety specially for a woman.
How sad it is? A fire drill is to ensure the safety measures of a factory or firm. But what happened here is extremely discouraging. The officials should have been little more precautious while conducting a fire drill like this. It is not the first time that something of this sort is happening. There has been a number of incidents in which people lost their lives while partaking in drills. It is obvious that the concerned authorities have not learnt anything from the past incidents.
There seems to be no measures taken just in case the test for
preparedness itself failed. Very sad indeed!
I hope there is a serious enquiry to ensure that this was not a carelessly organized firedrill.
drill for safety turns to death,alas!
Shame on the organisers. Shame on part of Fire dept.
What is the whole point of Fire drill, then?
If it is a mock drill, then the authorities should be very sure that
what they do, what they plan, and what they use should be 100% up to the
mark and accurate. This is really an unfortunate event. Authorities
should realize the value of taking a life unnecessarily.
shame on the fire department
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